No Call of Duty XP for 2012

Though it was a huge success for the publisher, Activision has decided not to hold a Call of Duty XP for 2012. Last year’s event marked the official debut of Modern Warfare 3‘s multiplayer, the first time fans could get their hands on the game, and featured a wide variety of activities inspired by the events in Infinity Ward’s games.

Unfortunately all of that combined with a sell out crowd couldn’t provide the type of experience that fans would expect of an event baring the Call of Duty name. While the event itself was no doubt profitable for Activision (even though a sizeable donation was made to the Call of Duty Endowment) it lacked the foresight or pre-planning that something like Comic-Con or E3 now pull off to great result.

There was plenty of entertainment provided by the event, even in the form of two high-profile concerts, but ultimately the waiting couldn’t outweigh the experiences. Sure, attendees to give the multiplayer or the new Spec Ops mode a try, but after close to an hour of waiting in some cases, the lack of innovation became more apparent.

Activision hasn’t completely pulled the plug on Call of Duty XP, there is still the possibility of the event being held in 2013, but just not this year. The assumption was that the 2012 event would focus on Treyarch’s futuristic Call of Duty, Black Ops 2, which could have made for some pretty interesting futuristic activities. In addition to canceling, however, Activision told Joystiq that they plan on having a larger presence at this year’s Gamescom, which is only a few months away.

From the perspective of a Call of Duty XP attendee it’s not surprising to hear that the event is being put on the back burner. A lack of planning and poor fan experience really soured gamers’ mood by day two, and too much of a focus was put on loosely related Call of Duty activities like zip-lining.

At the same time, though, cancelling an event that brought in a lot of money is something pretty unheard of for a company like Activision. Maybe they too saw that the event lacked the coordination needed to make it an annual occurrence — or maybe they simply weren’t ready to plan a huge expo like this again. Regardless, this means that our first look at Black Ops 2‘s multiplayer will probably take place in Germany.

Are you disappointed to learn that Call of Duty XP will not be taking place this year? Should Activision hold the event next year?